Roasted Rainbow Carrots Recipe 2 Ways-Sweet & Savory-Healthy Side Dish — Family Fresh Cooking

Roasted Rainbow Carrots Recipe 2 Ways-Sweet & Savory-Healthy Side Dish — Family Fresh Cooking

The pics are gorgeous, and the recipes sound divine!  Great side for Ostara or Easter.  The recipes and pictures come from Marla Meredith at Family Fresh Cooking.

For her savory version she roasted the carrots in garlic sea salt and melted ghee. And then finished the carrots with more melted ghee and chopped fresh herbs.

For her sweeter version, she roasted the carrots with unrefined coconut oil, pure maple syrup, a pinch of salt and some cinnamon. Could be a dessert or side…they are delightfully sweet.

Pin Addiction - or would that be Pinterest-itis?

I saw people talking typing about Pinterest and thought it was one of the stupidest silliest things. I couldn't figure out why someone would need it, never mind use it.  Of course, my organization skills are on the pile level - I know what is in each pile and the order of the piles, but it doesn't get much better.  And to think in the 80s I worked as a file clerk.  I think it damaged me for life!

Now I can't stop pinning.  There's so much info out there that I didn't know I wanted to know and reference!  Who knew?!  And then I found this program that downloads ALL YOUR PINS TO THE LINKS!!! - right to your computer.  Woo-hoo!  Can't beat that.  As long as I have my solar charger, I can get all my info without having it all printed out.  (Yay, saving trees!)

I started off with basic boards - health, religion, gardening, hair, prepping, food - the usual girly stuff.  Then I noticed I couldn't find stuff.  I KNEW I read/saw an article, and then couldn't find the thing after pinning.  So I reorganized.  So then I started breaking out my boards when they had good subgroups in them.  Now, I've gotten 139 boards and over 12,000 pins.

So, for the crafters out there, here's a quick list of my crafting boards.

For the Crafters:

Neat Crafts :

1. Drawing
2. Furniture
3. Garden & Outdoors
4. Giftables
5. Glass
6. Holiday Stuff
7. Jewelry / Metal Working
8. Miscellanea
9. Ornaments
10. Pallets
11. Yarn / Fabric

Snow long and thanks for the flakes!

When I woke up this morning, I saw a bunch of pretty white.

At least I got a couple pretty pics first!

And then I looked down and realized it was melting faster than it was landing.  

(As seen under this shot of one of my apricot trees.)

If you look outside now, you'd never know anything had happened.  I don't know if I should be happy or sad about this.  Hubby and I are leaving for a mini-vacation tomorrow.  Our anniversary is next week (married 5 years, together a lot longer) and we "won" a trip to Massanutten.  Of course, there is a time share offer involved but we qualify and we're willing to listen to the pitch to get the "free" stay.  We'll have to pay for everything but the room fees, but in this economy that's a heck of a break.  And we haven't been anywhere in years.  Two years ago we went and visited my Mom for three days at her house in Florida.  Three years ago we went to my Mom's - along with the rest of the family - for a family Thanksgiving. Four years ago we went to family in RI to bury Gram and have Christmas with family.  I think we're due.

Was just watching the news, and discovered that Massanutten got 17" of snow.  That's right - SEVENTEEN INCHES.

I guess we're hitting the slopes on Friday with the snow tubes.  Hubby and I can't be trusted on skis, there is no doubt we would injure ourselves - the bets would just be how badly.

And it is a given we'll be hanging out in the pool.  Indoor, heated waterpark with lots of stuff?  We're there!

And we have a wonderful neighbor that will make sure our furry children have food and water while we're gone.  Hubby has already said that laptop is staying home.  So, this will literally be the first vacation I won't be remotely working.  OMG.  I don't know what to do.  I better grab some books!

In the meantime, check out my Pinterest board.  What an addiction that has become for me - luckily it is still free, except for my time.  I didn't understand the appeal, but I started slow and now have 130+ boards with over 12,000 pins.  Good thing I don't sleep!

Dehydrate me, baby!!!

Woot!  I'm so excited!

I just scored on a [used] dehydrator!  I am picking it up after work tonight.  Yay!

I was able to score a Berron food dehydrator - the set up is similar to the Excalibur, with multiple slide in trays and fan at the back.

I love snacking on dried fruits and nuts but have been concerned about the presence of preservatives and other chemicals in the food.  Since I will be planting a large garden this year, the dehydrator will come in very handy for preserving some of the garden wealth.

My next target is canning supplies.

This past year or so I've started to really look at what I was eating.  I couldn't figure out why I was having such a problem with my weight.  10 years ago I was able to modify my diet and successfully lost over a 100 pounds.  [Over 300 if you add in my ex.]  I was in a miserable relationship and did stupid things to my body.  I found that eating 6 or so smaller meals all day worked wonders for me.  Start with a yogurt, have a piece of fruit, something for lunch, some nuts or fruit, something for dinner and something sweet.  I never went hungry and felt awesome.  Took me over a year to do it, but then it stayed off, until...  they irradiated my thyroid.  :(

That killed me.  I kept eating the same way, but starting putting the weight back on.  Gained 10 pounds in two weeks - even though I was eating and doing the same things as before.  Oh well.

Now, I've had enough!  I am getting older and the joints are hurting more.  I don't want to end up with diabetes or high cholesterol or any one of the hundreds of other problems out there.  I'm heading back to basics, starting with what I eat and drink.

I scored a Ninja blender and started drinking smoothies in the morning.  True story: I was wandering my local box store with a new Ninja in the cart, and as I'm perusing veggies a couple walked up to me and said they'd sell me their Ninja for $25.  How can you say no to that?!  I've got my juicer at home for finishing the night with green juice.  (Fiber in the am, juice in the pm.)  I saw a pin about dehydrating greens and making them into a powder, which can then be added to anything.  Can't hurt, right? Won't be the same as salad roughage, but I can't always finish my greens before they get spoiled.  Rather try this than just feed my compost all the time.

Additionally, this will work wonderfully with our prepping plans.  I hate purchasing unknown products, especially ones that I'm going to be eating.  Online reviews only get you so far.  And the companies can say that they are organic, but there still is no substitute to growing your own.  I will now be able to make my own meals in jars/mylar bags.  I scored a good Foodsaver from craigslist a couple weeks ago, so I'm all set there.

And there are a LOT of recipes out there for meals in a jar.  I've got some great ideas pinned that you can check out here:  My Food Prep Pins  and here:  My Dehydrating Pins 

Check them out and let me know what you think!  And wish me well.

Yay!  I'm off to do my happy dance!

Politics Today

UPDATE March 4th:  Everyone is commenting on this.  Check out THIS link for a video of the interview.

As I'm getting older, I find myself watching the shows my elders watched when I was a child.  Chris Matthews and Meet the Press are two examples of the shows.  I never understood the appeal of them when I was younger and I am certain that many young people today still feel the same way.

Now I find myself becoming involved with the world around me and wondering how did I not KNOW these things?  I watched David Gregory interview John Boehner on today's episode of Meet the Press. I wasn't very impressed with the answers given by Mr. Boehner.  Politicususa.com didn't seem to enjoy it either.  See their summary here: Boehner Interview.

One of the comment that Speaker Boehner kept making was that the President received his tax increase as of January 1, 2013 and should be happy with that as he wasn't going to get any more.  This seems very short sighted of Mr. Boehner.  The deficit cannot be reduced and fixed with just spending cuts.  I think both parties need to work together and establish reasonable spending cuts and creative tax increases.

And by creative, I am talking about things like legalizing marijuana and establishing a "pot" tax similar to the cigarette taxes out there.  I think it is also time to take a look at the charitable donation deduction rules, especially with regards to religion - and all religion, I'm not picking on Catholics here.  I also think that donations from lobbyists should be highly taxed and treated separately from regular income.  They need a flat tax.  Face it, this is money a representative would not otherwise receive.  If they want to take the funds, pay the tax.

Anyone else have any creative ideas?

Happy March!

The energy this time of year is so exciting.  It is almost as if you can feel Mother starting to stretch, waking from her long nap, wiggling her fingers and toes in all the new shoots.


I was outside last weekend and saw growth bulbs shooting out of the earth.  I think the squirrels ate and/or moved my crocuses as they haven't appeared.  But my daffodils and hyacinths are popping!  I'm starting to see growth on my fruit trees, as well.  Last week snow, this week growth.  Seeing everything sprouts makes me want to go outside and start planting NOW!  Then I realize there is a slight possibility of us getting hit by a coastal snow storm on Wednesday, and it isn't time to sow.  We shall see what this week brings.  In the meantime, I can always start sprouting.

With that in mind, I just bought a bunch of heirloom seeds for my garden.  I have such a hard time limiting my selection.  I found my seeds at My Patriot Supply.  [No, I am not a representative for them, nor are they a sponsor.]  Patriot's prices seem reasonable, the packaging is great (resealable mylar) and they have a lot of good reviews.  They also guarantee their seeds to be all heirloom and no GMOs.  That makes me happy as they say you are what you eat.  I am trying to make healthier decisions in my life, including my caloric intake.  I hesitate to use the word "diet" as it has bad connotations for many people. But this topic is best saved for another day.

So far, I'm planting two types of carrots, three tomatoes, two lettuce, spinach, cabbage, onion, six squash, two melon and two beans.  And some strawberries. And the herbs. At the home ground I already have raspberries and blackberries, two apricot trees, a mixed/grafted pear tree, two apple trees and a "fruit salad" tree with plums, apricots and peaches.  The pear tree has five types.  I had 5 good sized blueberry bushes, but Hubby decided to transplant them and they died.  He didn't realize they need wet toes to be happy.  Silly hubby.

So, tell me, what are your garden favorites?